Sangamo Conference invites Maroa-Forsyth to join in 2016-17 school year

The Sangamo Conference, considered the Springfield area’s premier small-school athletic league, is looking to the Decatur area to boost its membership.

Mason City Illini Central High School principal Ed Jodlowski, current president of the conference, said in an email Tuesday afternoon that the league’s board of directors had unanimously agreed Monday to invite Maroa-Forsyth to the Sangamo for all sports effective in the 2016-17 school year.

“The formal invitation was submitted to Maroa-Forsyth (Tuesday) afternoon,” Jodlowski said in the email.

“Out of respect for Maroa-Forsyth’s Board of Education and administration, the Sangamo Conference Board of Directors (made up of principals and athletic directors) would ask that you respect the process and give Maroa-Forsyth time to communicate with their current conference as they consider this invitation.”

Maroa-Forsyth, a school of 317 students in northern Macon County, is a member of the Decatur-area Okaw Valley Conference. But what’s currently a 12-team OVC will shrink to just six schools next school year, when the new-look conference will include Maroa, Champaign St. Thomas More, St. Joseph-Ogden, Tolono Unity, Monticello and Rantoul.

The Sangamo will lose two football-playing members, Pawnee and Niantic Sangamon Valley, after this year. Pittsfield is joining the Sangamo for football only next fall, but that leaves the league with only nine football teams.

That number is problematic for scheduling purposes, although the River Valley co-op program, hosted by Varna Midland north of Peoria, has agreed to serve as a non-conference opponent for all nine Sangamo teams this fall.

Illini Central is the Sangamo’s only non-football member.

Contacted earlier Tuesday before Jodlowski released the statement about inviting his school, Maroa-Forsyth principal Scott Adreon said his school would have many questions before considering changing conferences.

“If we do receive an invitation (from the Sangamo), our Board of Education would want to know the details of it, of course,” Adreon said. “And they’d want to get feedback from our coaches.

“To be honest, I’m not sure of the (Sangamo’s) structure. We’d want to know what it would look like.”

Maroa’s next scheduled school board meeting is June 9.

Maroa expressed interest in joining the Sangamo two years ago, when the Okaw Valley Conference began to undergo changes. Nokomis eventually was selected for the Sangamo, but Nokomis reconsidered and stayed in the Prairie State Conference.

Maroa has been a football power in recent years, winning the Class 2A state title in 2006 and the 1A championship in 2012. The Trojans also were 2A state runners-up in 2009 and 2010. Maroa also won the Class A boys state basketball title in 2007 with some of the same athletes who won the football championship the previous fall.

Maroa is Class 2A for four-class team sports for the current school year.